fair use http://www.nytimes.com/Indonesian Earthquake Kills at Least 4
By PETER GELLING
Published: November 17, 2008
JAKARTA, Indonesia — At least four people were killed and about 60 seriously injured after a powerful earthquake struck near the island of Sulawesi in central Indonesia early Monday.
The epicenter of the 7.5 magnitude quake was located underwater, several miles off the coast, prompting the Indonesian authorities to issue a tsunami warning. It was lifted several hours later.
The tsunami alert was the first since Indonesian authorities officially launched its long-awaited early warning system last week.
Authorities said thousands of houses were damaged and at least one school collapsed in rural towns in central Sulawesi. Several aftershocks followed, sending villagers fleeing into the streets, fearing a possible tsunami.
At least one hospital was evacuated and more than 12 hours after the initial shock, residents remained outdoors on high ground, according to Indonesia’s state news agency.
Indonesia’s 17,000 islands, which straddle the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an area where three tectonic plates merge causing continuous seismic activity, is regularly struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tidal waves. In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia’s northernmost province, killing more than 130,000 people.
Since then, the Indonesian government has improved its ability to respond to disasters, revamping its disaster management agency, mobilizing its military and installing the tsunami early-warning system.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch last week that the system was “crucial” in preventing the kind of devastation seen in Aceh in 2004.
A string of buoys set around the country are connected to sensors below the water’s surface that quickly detect the kind of undersea earthquakes that cause tsunamis. At the launch, scientists said the system can also predict how high the waves will be and when they will arrive on land.
fair use http://www.abc.net.au/Brisbane storms like a 'great big bomb'
Posted Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:34am AEDT
Updated Mon Nov 17, 2008 12:05pm AEDT
Residents of Brisbane's hardest-hit suburb have described storms that swept across Queensland's south-east as more terrifying than a cyclone.
Weemala Street in The Gap on Brisbane's north is almost unrecognisable this morning.
Homes are without roofs, a hot water service sits in the street, corrugated iron is wrapped around power lines and countless trees are down.
Seventy-thousand homes are still without power, as the storms cut a path of destruction through Toowoomba, the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
Some of the worst hit areas were Mount Tamborine and the Brisbane suburbs of The Gap, Arana Hills and Albany Creek.
The storms brought destructive winds, large hail and torrential rain, causing flash flooding.
At the height of the storm, power was cut to almost 230,000 homes and businesses or 20 per cent of south-east Queensland.
Brisbane resident Davina Thomas says her street looks like a bomb has gone off.
"It looks like there's been a bomb, a great big bomb go off in all the street - it's just terrible," she said.
"My daughter's had her roof blown off - it's in the pool."
Resident Amberyn Dargusch was inside her home at The Gap when the roof lifted off and landed in her pool.
"It was just incredibly terrifying - I was scared for my life, my children thought they were going to die," she said.
The family had just completed renovations on their home.
Brisbane's Lord Mayor Campbell Newman is at The Gap in the city's north-west and says it looks like the aftermath of a cyclone.
"The damage is absolutely extraordinary - I've not seen anything like it before," he said.
Power out
Energex spokesman Mike Swanston says some customers might not have power until early tonight.
"We had major damage on our main transmission systems from Gympie to Redland Bay last night - it was just unbelievable," he said.
"I've been in network operations for the best part of 27 years and this is certainly one that's put a notch on the wall."
Yesterday at the height of the storm, a 20-year-old man was killed when he was sucked down a drain at Chermside on Brisbane's northside.
Residents are pleading for help from the State Emergency Service (SES) to put tarps on the remains of their homes.
Queensland Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts is urging residents to be patient.
"It's been a very busy night also for Energex workers with power lines down," he said.
"We're just asking people to take a little bit of care this morning, but council have been out very early to try to help clear debris and we'll have a lot of SES workers from both Brisbane and surrounding regions helping throughout the day."
The State Emergency Service has received about 700 calls for help.
Mr Roberts says more calls are expected as residents assess the damage in the daylight.
"There's a lot of people out and about at the moment and I urge motorists to take care, there'll be a lot of streets that might be blocked," he said.
"We just need people to be cautious and to be patient because eventually we'll get around and we'll clean up this mess so we can get on with our lives."
Police are directing traffic around blocked roads and are expecting a slow commute to work.
fair use http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/19216/2008/10/11-135720-1.htmHonduran floods: The disaster no one is reporting
11 Nov 2008 13:57:00 GMT
Written by: Emma Batha
Landslides and flooding in Honduras have affected an estimated 320,000 people, wiped out almost half the crops and prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.
Aid workers say it's the worst disaster since Hurricane Mitch, which killed more than 5,000 people when it slammed into the Central American county in 1998.
Yet scan the newspapers or internet and you'll be hard pressed to find any reports.
Admittedly, the world media has been focussed on the American elections and global credit crunch, but this isn't the only reason behind the silence.
Christian Aid says the lack of attention is partly because the flooding in Honduras has been a slow developing disaster caused by weeks of sustained rain brought on by a tropical depression. A sudden hurricane hit would have probably attracted more coverage.
Yet this disaster shows depressions can be every bit as devastating.
"This is the worst flooding Honduras has experienced since Hurricane Mitch 10 years ago," says Erwin Garzona, Christian Aid's emergencies officer for Central and South America.
"The impact is worse than Hurricane Felix in 2007 or Hurricane Bertha in 2004, but there has been little media coverage, partly because this situation is caused by continuous heavy rainfall rather than a dramatic hurricane strike."
The low death toll is probably another factor in the lack of coverage. Thanks to lessons learned from Hurricane Mitch, many Honduran communities now have better early warning and evacuation systems which have probably saved many lives.
Around 40 people have died so far - a tiny fraction of the number killed by Mitch. But aid workers say the geographical extent of this year's disaster is worse than in 1998. Only one of Honduras's 18 provinces has escaped unscathed.
Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes, and many communities can only be reached by boat, hampering relief efforts. Aid agencies warn that Honduras will face serious food shortages for many months after the rains destroyed up to half this year's crops.
Garzona says the international response had been surprisingly slow - a fact he believes is due in part to the lack of media coverage. Another factor is the aid world's focus on the Pakistan earthquake which struck on Oct. 29 as the Honduran disaster was escalating.
U.N. agencies and their partners have launched a $17 million flash appeal for Honduras to provide food, shelter, health care, water and sanitation. But just 8.8 per cent of this has been funded so far.
The U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund, which was partly set up to plug the gaps for overlooked emergencies, has released a $1.5 million grant.
"The international community has been very slow considering the impact. The number affected is high - not as high as Mitch, but it is high," Garzona says.
The disaster has been exacerbated by the large number of landslides caused by widespread deforestation which has become much worse in the last decade, he says.
Landslides have long-term effects because villagers cannot replant crops and rebuild homes when the rains subside. But Garzona says deforestation is a hard problem to tackle because much of it is illegal and there is a high level of corruption.
Some aid workers say the level of poverty in Honduras has also increased since Mitch, meaning more people are building homes on land that is marginal and prone to flooding.
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1 response to “Honduran floods: The disaster no one is reporting”
Please note that comments should not be regarded as the views of Reuters.
1. Robin Gracie Travis Murphree says:
12 Nov 2008 14:11:02 GMT
It is sad that there is not much reporting on what is going on here in Honduras. I am a missionary here and have been working feverishly for three weeks with authorities to bring relief to the people who are suffering. We still have communities that we cannot reach because of landslides that have destroyed roads. This week we gave food, medicines, cushions and blankets to people who walked twelve hours through the mountains to get help. It truly is a horrible disaster here. Not only are roads and bridges and homes destroyed but also water systems are destroyed and people's outhouses are collapsing because the ground is saturated. more than 50% of the crops are destroyed, which adds to the disaster of the earlier crops this year destroyed due to drought. Robin Gracie Travis Murphree Global Outreach International www.go-honduras.org